Abstract

Background: Toddlers' life is an important period for growth and development. Nutritional deficiencies created during this period are almost hard to compensate. This implies the need for timely, accurate and cost-effective screening of toddlers. Traditional methods of checking food intake are time consuming and expensive.

Objectives: Validate the NutriCHEQ questionnaire in assessment of the relevance of model and dietary intake of toddlers in Iran.

Methods: 155 children aged 12 to 36 months were randomly selected from health centers in the northen Tehran province. Their parents were asked to register all of their foods and beverage intakes. Each day, a trained expert contacted them to get information on food recalls, which were reviewed by Nutritionist 4. The NutriCHEQ questionnaire contained three parts; Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. Finally, using the above information and statistical methods including Pearson correlation coefficient, one-way ANOVA and Bonferroni's test, for analyzing the data.

Results: The reliability of the first section was 0.62 and for the second section was 0.6. The mean NutriCHEQ scores for the first, second sections and total, were 2.12 ± 1.23, 3.43 ± 1.98 and 5.55 ± 2. 51, respectively. According to the NutriCHEQ score, 14 children (13%) were in the high risk group. There was a significant difference (p<0.5) between the risk groups in terms of percentage of carbohydrate energy, protein energy, vitamin D, iron. In the second section, there was a significant difference (p<0.5) between the groups in terms of daily intake of fiber.

Conclusion: The NutriCHEQ questionnaire seems to be a reliable and convenient tool for professionals and parents to identify children aged 1 to 3 who are at nutritional risk. Keywords: Children, Malnutrition, Nutritional Screening, Outpatient, Validation.

Keywords: NutriCHEQ; Questionnaire; Nutritional Risk

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Citation

Citation: Beheshteh Olang. “Assessment of Validity and Reliability of the NutriCHEQ Questionnaire for Identifying Children Aged 1 to 3 Years at Nutritional Risk”.Acta Scientific Women's Health 2.1 (2020): 15-22.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Beheshteh Olang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.